Effect of particle size distributions on absorbance spectra of gold nanoparticles

In this paper, a method is developed to calculate the absorbance spectra of nanoparticles solution containing a size distribution of particles using the Mie theory. The standard gold nanoparticles solutions were purchased and characterized with the UV-visible absorption spectroscopy and dynamic light scattering size measurements techniques. Model size distributions were fit to the experimental absorbance spectra using the method described herein. Good semi-quantitative fits were found, which elucidate qualitative differences between small and large gold nanoparticles. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.